Monthly Archives: November 2016

Imagine your business had been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to launch a new product/service, which if successfully carried out, would result in huge growth for your brand and cause a major increase in revenue.

But in order to capitalise on this opportunity, your business would need to undergo a number of changes, and by that I mean your team would need to undergo some changes. They would be expected to take on additional work, they might need to re-locate to other parts of the country and there would be a possibility of merging with another business in order to successfully achieve this rollout.

How is the visualisation exercise working out for you? Are you feeling positive or apprehensive? What’s the first thing that pops into your mind? There may be many concerns, ideas, issues, but I’m guessing that one of your first thoughts is how would your team members take the news?

This is a problem that many business owners have to deal with on a regular basis – successfully implementing change into their businesses. Sometimes its large scale change, and sometimes its small scale. How are some businesses able to implement change well, yet others can’t and face huge problems?

One of the biggest influences in your business are your people. Depending on how they react to and manage the change, will determine how successful your change implementation process will be. To successfully implement change you want a high performance culture in your business.

You want:

Flexible and highly adaptive individuals

A team who are optimistic and see change from the very beginning as an opportunity for growth and success

Confident team players who believe in the product and service and buy into the business purpose

Motivated, energised and engaged individuals

Team members who understand and get the “bigger picture”

Do you have a high performance culture in your business? Do you have a high performance team?

It’s no good trying to implement changes in your business if you don’t have the culture right. And its no use trying to improve the culture at the same time as you implement the change. This type of implementation is not a sprint, its an marathon. The investment into your business culture should actually start from the day of your business inception or as close to it as possible. Remember that people’s behaviour, belief systems and habits don’t just change overnight, it takes time. In some instances, it would be time that you wouldn’t have the luxury of having, especially in the middle of a change initiative.

So while you are busy planning great growth and innovation within your business, think about your team members and whether or not they can happily facilitate and drive these changes for you. Perhaps you need to work on your people and building a high performance team before implementing a change initiative.

Over the years I have heard some rather interesting interpretations of what some people think coaching is and who would require the services of a coach.

My favourite one is, “You only need a coach if you are an under-performer”. This kind of statement does give coaching a bit of a bad reputation and probably prevents a lot of people from seeking out a coach, when they actually really need one, as they don’t want to be labelled as an under-performer. Coaching is not for the “underperforming”, “lazy” “unproductive” team members. It is for anyone who believes that they need to move forward in their work or personal lives. People who want to change the status quo, but just need some assistance. If they happen to be under-performers then so be it. The most important character trait about the person seeking coaching is not about how productive or unproductive they are, but that they want to change, be coached and will voluntarily hold themselves accountable throughout the coaching engagement.

On the flip side the second myth I often hear is this, “If you are performing well, you don’t need a coach”

Here’s some food for thought. If high performers don’t need coaches, then why do people such as Sir Richard Branson, the late Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey have coaches?

These high performing individuals are the smart ones. They know that you are never always running on optimal speed. That there is always room for improvement. They harness the power of coaching to catapult themselves forward in order to achieve their goals.

The third coaching myth is as follows. “If you are trained as a coach, or have acquired coaching skills you cannot take disciplinary action against your employees?”

Many people, especially business owners believe that if you start coaching your employees that you somehow lose the ability or right to take disciplinary action against your employees if it is required. That somehow if you did take disciplinary action you would fail as a manager. Well, I can assure you that that is definitely incorrect. As a manager or business owner you may take a different approach to your employees, due to your new coaching skills, however you are still their manager and it would be to your business detriment if you didn’t take corrective action if and when required.

Remember as a business owner you wear different hats. Some days you are a mentor or a coach, a cheerleader, a negotiator or even a consoler. Just because you up-skill yourself with certain coaching competencies it doesn’t mean you have lost the ability to take on other essential roles within your business.

If you are finding that there is a conflict of interest when coaching your own employees, perhaps think about bringing in an external coach.

Probably the best investment you could make in your team members is to offer them the services of a coach. Allow them to:

Create focused goals and action plans

Build confidence in themselves

Work through their own personal goals

Develop and grow within their position.

What is your people plan? How are you or your team members moving forward?